CAPTAIN FATE

Real Name: Jebediah Fate

Identity/Class: Human ghost; magic-user; 18th century to modern era

Occupation: Ship Captain

Group Membership: Leader of the crew of the Serpent's Crown (Abel Barlow, Patch, Mr. Pitt, others)

Affiliations: Baron Blood (Kenneth Crichton), Dracula, Lilith, Thog, vampires

Enemies: Barbara Bannister, John Daltry, Maura Hawke, Khordes, Man-Thing, Captain Matson, the Marietta crew, MI13 (Black Knight/Dane Whitman, Captain Britain/Brian Braddock, Excalibur/Faiza Hussain, Spitfire/Jacqueline Falsworth Crichton, others), Maura Spinner;
    former owner of the Serpent's Crown, passengers and crew of the Athena and Southlands Airways Flight 904

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Serpent's Crown (new version); Formerly mobile aboard the Serpent's Crown ship, primarily in the Atlantic Ocean in the region of the Bermuda Triangle (between what is now Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Miami, Florida);
     18th century to modern era

First Appearance: Man-Thing I#13 (January, 1975)

Powers/Abilities: Captain Fate has some experience with a cutlass and pistol, and he commands the crew of the Serpent's Crown. He is immune to aging and conventional disease, and under some circumstances he is immune to conventional injury. However, he once fell victim to a bullet from a normal gun, and he burned at the Man-Thing's touch. He also wielded the Magus Sword (which will get its own profile at some point)

History:
(Man-Thing II#7 (fb) - BTS) - Captain Fate slew the owner of the ship the Serpent's Crown, claiming it as his own.

(Man-Thing II#8 (fb) - BTS) - The pirates of the Serpent's Crown sank the British Frigate Athena, killing all hands aboard.

(Man-Thing I#14 (fb)) <1795 (see comments)> - Jebediah Fate was first mate to Maura Hawke, aboard the Serpent's Crown pirate ship. Maura had learned of a tiny uncharted island containing a strange treasure tower, and she led her crew to take a small boat ashore. Maura scaled the otherwise sheer wall, then tossed a rope to the crew to help them to the top. There they found "booty beyond all of their dreams," which they had just begun to collect when the tower's creator, the sorcerous satyr Khordes, appeared. Khordes told them men that they could have all of the treasure they desired, if they would give him in exchange a woman with whom he could mate and replenish his youth and virility. Fate and the others betrayed Maura, leaving her behind with Khordes as they took their leave. Khordes removed the magical prison that had held Maura, but she responded by skewering him with her cutlass. Maura was furious to learn that her crew had truly left her, and she cursed them all to never reach port, never enjoy their newfound wealth, and to sail on forever, beyond time, beyond death. The dying Khordes used his magic to empower her curse, but similarly cursed Maura: "Thrice shall you live and die e're you return to the sea--three lives to learn the meaning of love--e're we meet again."
    Khordes tower then sank into the sea, while the Serpent's Crown lifted off the water into the sky, sailing the spacewinds for eternity it seemed.

(Man-Thing I#13) - The Serpent's Crown materialized in the air above the Marietta cargo ship, which was exploring the Bermuda Triangle on a research mission for oceanographer Dr. Maura Spinner. Fate led the crew to board the Marietta, where they easily overpowered that ship's crew, abducting Maura Spinner as well as the Man-Thing, which they had found in a nearly dead state aboard the Marietta. Upon returning to the Serpent's Crown, Fate revealed that Maura was their queen and that they needed her for the battle against Khordes. However, her screams of protest revived the Man-Thing, who attacked Fate's crew. After losing many shipmates to the bog beast, Fate had his men join together and force him off the ship. As their ship was in the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere, the Man-Thing quickly froze solid.

(Man-Thing I#14 (fb) - BTS) - Fate and his men apparently regained the mortal forms after capturing Maura.

(Man-Thing I#14) - Fate had Maura dressed in pirates clothes and began laughing when she attacked his crewman; he stopped laughing when she brandished a stolen blade at his throat. Fate told her of her of the ancient curse, while at the same time, the Man-Thing, who had crashed to ocean floor in fiery plume, was re-formed by Khordes magic, and Khordes was reborn as well. Khordes's tower raised anew and Fate, Maura, and the crew confronted the aged satyr, who promised to lift the curse if Maura would remain with him and accept his love. Maura refused and sent the pirates to slay Khordes, but the Man-Thing intervened fighting the pirates off. However, with the bog-beast thusly occupied, Maura and Fate cornered Khordes, intending to kill him, but then Captain Matson, head of the Marietta's crew, arrived and shot Fate. The Man-Thing disposed of the remaining pirates, while Maura finally accepted Khordes' offer after he revealed that she would have soon died at Fate's hand if he had not kept her on his isle centuries before.
    Khordes island sunk once again, and Khordes transported the Man-Thing back to the Everglades.

(Man-Thing II#11 (fb) - BTS <I think> ) - Fate was resurrected and granted power by Thog in order to acquire John Daltry as an agent.

(Man-Thing II#7 (fb)) - The Serpent's Crown appeared in the sky above an airplane (Southlands Airways Flight 904); Fate led the crew in assaulting it, abducting its female passengers and crew before knocking it out of the sky. Fate himself skewered the captain with his Diasturian sword (a.k.a. the Magus Sword, one of several similar swords forged by Miguel Diasturian), leaving him pinned to the control panel as the ship crashed into the Florida Everglades.

(Man-Thing II#7) - The crashed airplane was investigated by the authorities with Sheriff John Daltry acquiring the Magus sword for Barbara Bannister, who thought she might be able to learn about the cause of the crash from it. Meanwhile, Fate sent his crew to recover his sword, only for them to run into the Man-Thing, who slaughtered all of them, except Abel Barlow, whom Fate slew upon his reporting the failure. Fate's crew located the Magus Sword on their second attempt, capturing Daltry, Bannister, and the Man-Thing along with it.

(Man-Thing II#8) - Daltry assaulted Fate, who had him hurled into the brig, alongside the Man-Thing, intending for the monster to slay Daltry. The sheriff managed to calm the Man-Thing, and Fate twice refused Dalty's challenges to trial by combat, slaying crewman Mr. Pitt when he questioned his captain. Meanwhile, Khordes' tower rose anew alongside the similarly raised the Athena, on which Khordes and Maura Spinner traveled towards a confrontation with Fate and the crew of the Serpent's Crown. Captain Fate sought to "romance" Bannister, but the Athena arrived in time, assaulting the Serpent's Crown. The Man-Thing joined the fight against the pirates, while Daltry, wielding the Magus Sword, attacked Fate. After a short struggle, the Man-Thing shattered the mast, knocking both Fate and Daltry off of it. The Man-Thing confronted Fate, who shouted that he wasn't afraid of the creature; the truth was revealed as the Man-Thing's claw seared his face.
    Khordes sent the remaining pirates to their long overdue final reward, but Fate was nowhere to be seen. As the former prisoners left the Serpent's Crown, Daltry, still holding the Magus Sword, found himself unable to leave. The Serpent's Crown took off, while Fate's laughing image appeared in the sky; Khordes was powerless to stop it.

(Captain Britain and MI13#12) - Captain Fate attended a meeting with Dracula, Lilith, Spitfire and Baron Blood (Kenneth). Fate led the others to his mystically enlarged flagship, which Dracula showed to those, who have not yet seen it.

   Dracula showed Lilith and Fate how he had found Quincy Harker's skull, which prevented vampires from entering Great Britain, due to a powerful mystic spell. In the observartory Fate observed Lilith sending Dracula's astral form to Earth to destroy the skull (it was later revealed that the skull was actually not the real one, leaving the spell intact)

(Captain Britain and MI13#13) - Fate joined Dracula, Lilith and an army of vampires on their flagship on its way to Earth. Fate told Dracula that it would take two days to enter Earth's atmosphere.

(Captain Britain and MI13#14) - Dracula returned after two days from his cabin and asked Fate how long he had been gone. Fate was surprised that Dracula asked him if the scouts were already sent to Earth because he had never given that order (only in Plokta's illusion, which Dracula was trapped in for two days). Fate informed Dracula when Captain Britain approached the flagship. Other MI13 agents followed through teleportation. Among them was the Black Knight (Whitman), who fought Fate and disarmed him. Without his sword the curse of Captain Fate was broke and his human form dissolved. The flagship started breaking apart, but Lilith kept it together with her own magic. Freed of the curse Daltry, the former host of Captain Fate, was taken back to Earth by the Black Knight, Spitfire and Excalibur.

Comments: Created by Steve Gerber, John Buscema, and Tom Sutton.

    Daltry was revealed to have become a pawn of Thog in Man-Thing II#11. Apparently Fate transferred his curse to Daltry?

    Captain Fate's origin, as originally told by himself, took place "180 years ago." However, I see no reason that this time period would move forward with the sliding time scale, and Fate is consistently described as an 18th century pirate, so I think it should stay at 1795.

Bermuda Triangle - here's its secret in the Marvel Universe: Bermuda Triangle

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:

• Fate, Ian  - sorcerer, sought revenge on Devil-Slayer who had inadvertently slain his wife back in his mercenary days
      --Defenders I#104
• FATEBALL (Laura Broadbahr) - B-Sides.
     skilled fighter, uses fateball/"magic eight-ball" to determine the future and the truth
      --B-Sides#1
• Fates, cosmic beings @ Tales to Astonish I#30
• Fates (Atropos (<scissors>, Verdani, Klothos (<spinner>, Urd, Klothos), Lachesis (<lots>, Skuld, Laecius))
      - apparent daughters of Zeus and Themis
      -MOIRAE*, NORNS*, WEIRD SISTERS* --Tales to Astonish I#33, Journey into Mystery I#102
• Madame Fate (C. B. Kalish) - assaulted two of Kingpin’s men in an attempt to prove herself in order to become his new assassin, rejected by Kingpin
      --[Spectacular Spider-Man II#109]
• other "Captain" or "Fate" characters